Has Bachmann released any HO rolling stock with Mexican roadnames in the past 10 to 15 years? Other manufacturers' products seem to sell out before the cars even arrive, and anything Mexican on eBay fetches prices two or three times the original MSRP. I am not seeking roadnames of the 21st Century, but the NdeM, FCP, S-BC, Ch-P and FUS cars of the early 1980's. I feel there is a larger market than most US manufacturers realize.
Gil Hulin
Eugene, OR
I don't know how well Mexican equipment would sell (my guess is that it would be even more unusual than Canadian equipment), but some people do model the roads of Mexico, including this fellow below, who is a pretty good modeler and apparently a fan of Bachmann steam power:
http://www.youtube.com/user/doblealtura/videos
A few of other video links from modelers south of the Rio Grande:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkvlmbgCGvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j_0k76Cvhk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnscU1Ok0lI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ7pTy2BI2A
I would see a fair amount of Mexican equipment while working in New Mexico. Even operated some Mexican locomotives.
I think if a person were modeling that area, they would need some Mexican freight cars to make it look right.
Les
Gil-
I don't know about Bachmann but other manufacturers have some NdeM rolling stock sometimes. Not a lot, though. Much, probably all, Mexican railway equipment is US made so it's not difficult to find the correct model and then repaint and letter. Yes, that's a bigger hassle than coming home from the LHS with a track-ready model, but it's one route to the equipment you want.
-- D
In the late 1960s and up until I left Montreal in 1977, it was not uncommon to see the occasional Mexican boxcar. N De M usually.
So it's not just the U.S. that saw/sees Mexican cars.
The only Mexican rail cars Iever saw, were the artillery cars in "Villa Rides" (Brynner, Mitchum, Bronson-1967)... Seriously, Other than NdeM, I didn;t know there were any other Mexican roads.
Rich C.
There are several more Mexican railroad cars . I see tri-level & bi-level enclosed car carriers going back & forth between Belvidere and Marengo , Illinois everyday N de M , and Ferro . These are the new 89 foot cars & also some of the articulated cars. This is on a single track freight Union Pacific ,former CNW freight line. John 2
J2-
Those autoloaders carry cars assembled in Mexico. Many manufacturers, both US and foreign, have plants there.
-- D
Quote from: Doneldon on May 13, 2013, 01:30:01 AM
Gil-
I don't know about Bachmann but other manufacturers have some NdeM rolling stock sometimes. Not a lot, though. Much, probably all, Mexican railway equipment is US made so it's not difficult to find the correct model and then repaint and letter. Yes, that's a bigger hassle than coming home from the LHS with a track-ready model, but it one route to the equipment you want.
-- D
while most Mexican equipment was similar to the us, there were some differences. n de m bought quite a few diesels from American builders which were intended for export worldwide, and thus were not found in the usa. emd g12s and g16s come to mind. the same basic models were used in Yugoslavia, brazil and Egypt among others. I believe the Brazilian company frateschi makes a model of the g12.
I want to thank the eight forum members who responded over the past six days, but no one actually answered my question as to whether Bachmann has produced any motive power or rolling stock lettered for Mexican railroads, past or present? I am familiar with the models that Athearn, Atlas, Bowser, Broadway Limited and other HO scale manufacturers have produced, and that simple NdeM boxcars often sell at three to four times their original MSRP when offered on eBay. And Walthers NdeM Pullman cars never appear on the second hand market at all.
Gil Hulin
As far as I know, I've never seen anything from Bachmann lettered for a Mexican road. Fortunately, at least in the case of steam locomotives and freight cars, you're looking at standard colors and painting practices, i.e., black steam engines and red box cars. Those types of schemes from the steam era are very easy to paint yourself and letter with decals--provided you can locate decals! They seem to be harder to come by than pre-lettered locomotives.
I still miss Champion Decal Company. . .
HI ! Just looking out the window at the passing freight . Does anybody know what Railroad uses "TFM" on their auto-carriers ? John 2.
"TFM" is a Mexican railroad owned by Kansas City Southern. They pool power with KCS.
The locomotives are painted in the gray and red KCS scheme. They are the same except for lettering inside the cabs is in both Spanish and English.
I'm afraid I don't recall the name that TFM stands for. A railroad I worked for in Mississippi and Alabama operated them in run-through trains off KCS. We used to joke that it meant "Tacos From Mexico".
Les
Kansas City Southern de México (KCSM), formerly Transportación Ferroviaria Mexicana (TFM), is the name of a company dedicated to freight transportation using rail in the North Eastern part of Mexico. KCSM is fully owned and operated by Kansas City Southern.
BLI had mexican centipedes, and mikados i believe
Since my original post last May regarding HO models with Mexican roadnames, I have been able to pluck a few NdeM 40-foot and 50-foot boxcars off eBay. I can create other NdeM equipment (stock cars and tank cars) with Microscale decals that have been available for years, and welcome the new FCP (Ferrocarril del Pacifico) decals that Microscale just released in December, 2013. Although other model companies such as Intermountain and Fox Valley Models are producing modern Mexican cars, I will continue to model the early 1980's era when there were still five major railroads serving the country. Variety was greater then just as it was in the U.S.
A highlight of my Mexican modeling came last summer when I operated several one-hour shifts on the local HO club's portable layout at the local county fair. One afternoon an Hispanic family wandered into the room. The children were of course excited by the trains, but the father's "take it or leave it" expression quickly changed when he spotted the NdeM train I was running as something familiar from his childhood.
Even if Bachmann has not produced any Mexican roadname products in the past, I would highly encourage the company to consider testing the market with a sample freight car in the future. NdeM boxcars are quite common, but something distinctive as a Chihuahua al Pacifico or Sonora-Baja California boxcar should appeal to modelers of Southwestern U.S. railroads as well as Mexican railroads. When Ch-P or SBC boxcars occasionally appear on eBay the bidding quickly soars to the $40-50 range.
Gil Hulin
Eugene, OR